Health Bill [HL]

Thank you. The amendment tabled by the noble Earl, Lord Howe, places my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Health under an obligation to consult bodies and persons he deems appropriate when preparing regulations that we will be drawing up later this year. The Secretary of State is under existing duties to consult in the development of policy and secondary legislation. There will therefore be extensive and inclusive consultation in developing our ideas in this area. This has already started in relation to the assurance exercise. I appreciate the noble Earl’s vigour in reminding us of this important consultation, but I reassure him that development of policy in this area is very much a collaborative effort with our stakeholders. I also agree with the noble Earl in his reference to changes indicators. I have reminded the Committee before that quality is a moving target, and we constantly need to challenge ourselves with finding the new indicators that we must develop to measure it. We hope to do so through the National Quality Board, some of whose main functions are to develop new indicators and even to assess some indicators which may not be valid in the future. I hope that it does so at a national level in consultation with the CQC, NICE—the standard setter—Monitor and other stakeholders, including patients. I hope that I have reassured the noble Earl.